Day 28 - Thursday 1 February 2024

Today was planned to be a quiet one, and that's pretty much the way it's panned out. Sometimes you need a day like this just to draw breath before the next adventure!

Awake early as is my habit, and no real rush to do anything, so I went along to breakfast at just before 08:00. Then I decided to go and have a bit of an explore of Tauranga. I wandered along the wharf and found the main pub and restaurant area about 10 minutes from the hotel.

I stopped by the tourist information office to speak about the best way to use the busses, and they have a thing called a Bee card which can be pre-loaded and used at a discounted fare. As I'll be using the bus to get to the cricket, and to explore Mount Maunganui the day after tomorrow it makes sense to do it this way, so I wandered along to the regional council office about 5 minutes further along and arranged for this.

Transport sorted for my stay here, I went and found a coffee and it's probably a good thing that I didn't spot all of the cheesecakes and pastries before getting the coffee; saved from myself by my own inattention!

Back to the hotel at just before midday; I had a beer or two, took some footage so I have something for today's blog and vlog, had a dip in the pool here, and basically did nothing all afternoon.

View from Trinity Wharf hotel, Tauranga

The hotel, as the name Trinity Wharf suggests, is built on the old wharf just upstream from the SH2 bridge. The other side of the bridge is the container port in the natural deep water harbour, and across the bridge is Mount Manganui which I'll explore the day after tomorrow. A ten minute walk upstream from the hotel the old wharf area has been redeveloped, and seems to be the main social hub of the city.

As I was getting out of the pool a few guys in South Africa tracksuits were having an explore; no idea whether they are players or not ..... I didn't recognise any names so have zero chance of recognising faces. Maybe I'll get the opportunity to have a chat at some stage.

Tomorrow is an early start as I have an 08:30 tour of the Hobbiton movie set .... I chose the first tour of the day so hopefully there won't be that many people around, but it is an hour away and I need to be checked in 20 minutes before the tour, so adding a bit of contingency I'll leave here at around 06:30.

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